Developing a project charter

 A project charter is described as a document that formally starts a phase or project (Robert, 2013). It officially authorize the reality of a project and give reference sources for the future and plan of that particular project or phase. The charter shows a direction and a logical of purpose to the project managers from the beginning of a project or a phase to the completion. According to Randy Tango, a business oriented and project practitioner, argued in one of his business articles that project stakeholders should take a greater care and pride in their project/phase charter since in that project, it is where the management and other project stakeholders sow their good seeds, and it will finally take care of its stakeholders in return (Robert, 2013).

The value of a project charter

As mentioned earlier, a project charter offers a precise direction and a sense of persistence to the stakeholders and the management from the project initial stages, through the project activities to the completion of the project. The project charter also defines which activities will comprise of the whole project, who will perform such activities and how the activities will be performed within the stipulated time and budget (Robert, 2013). The project charter is also valuable in that it names the project overall manager, describe and define the authorities and responsibilities of the project manager. The charter also provides the active stakeholders and the manager with an authority to use the organizational information and resources to achieve the desired outcomes and objectives of the project. The charter also explains the business needs and requirements under which such project is initiated (Robert, 2013).

A project charter also captures and portrays a higher level planning data such as scope, assumptions and deliverables concerning the project (Robert, 2013). The charter also enables the development of the project specifics later in the development process. Other documents that are of value such as the business case documents and project statement of work are the documents that must be prepared before the project charter development begins (Robert, 2013). The document, statement of work (SOW) is a description of project’s products, result and service which must be written down on paper.